Tribeca Tests Marketplace

Audiences vote at the box office. Critics file their reviews. But another way to measure the impact of a major film festival is the excitement it generates among industry professionals.

At the Sundance Film Festival in January, two dozen entries were snapped up by film distributors before the curtains fell. So far, only one film has been picked up out of the Tribeca Film Festival, which wrapped its 11th edition on Sunday. The festival was not originally intended as an industry feeding frenzy, but with some 50 films available for purchase this year, its role as a marketplace, like everything else, is evolving. And, consistent with activity at some other festivals, buyers and filmmakers are moving at a more cautious pace.

ENLARGE

Salma Hayek in 'As Luck Would Have It,' which, as of Tuesday, was the lone purchase made from films on offer at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Carlos Perez

"I thought the curatorial selectivity was of a higher order this year," said Richard Lorber, the president and CEO of Kino Lorber, a New York-based independent-film distribution company that had two of its own titles (the French drama "Elles" and the Thai thriller "Headshot") in the festival. "I found more films than I had reason to like than I had expected." Mr. Lorber said he hoped to pick up two or three films for his company, including a notable documentary and a narrative feature prize-winner.

That latter category was dominated by "Una Noche," Lucy Mulloy's drama about three Cuban teenagers who plot an escape to America on a homemade raft. Among other honors for the film, Ms. Mulloy was named the festival's best new director. But the prizes were overshadowed by a real-life drama reflected in the film: two of the actors, Javier Nunez Florian and Anailin de la Rua, vanished in Miami en route to the film's Tribeca premiere. They're now reported to be seeking political asylum.

"'Una Noche' was getting consistent buzz," said Arianna Bocco, senior vice president of acquisitions for Sundance Selects/IFC Films. She also mentioned the documentaries "Knuckleball!," about the quirky baseball pitch, and "Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey," the story of a Filipino bar singer's surprise gig as the new frontman of vintage rock act Journey.

But, she added, "I don't think there was any one that universally stood out."

Ms. Bocco picked up one film for IFC Midnight, the distributor's genre label: Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia's "As Luck Would Have It," a bleak satire starring Salma Hayek as the wife of an advertising executive who becomes a celebrity after a catastrophic accident.

"He's a director that we've known for a long time," she said. "It fits our model."

As of Tuesday, however, that was the lone purchase made at the festival. Buyers were quicker on the draw last year, when Magnolia Pictures picked up " Jiro Dreams of Sushi" before the film's premiere, and the Weinstein Company acquired "The Bully Project" (which became "Bully"). A few industry representatives conceded that this year they just didn't see anything that excited them.

"Last year, though, people weren't talking about 'Bully,'" the festival's chief creative officer, Geoffrey Gilmore, said of the documentary, which has been the focus of a recent ratings battle between the Weinstein Company and the Motion Picture Association of America. "It became more prominent now that it had the release that it did."

Mr. Gilmore estimated that about 20 films were at some stage in the acquisition process, but that negotiations are moving slower this year, consistent with the pace at other festivals, like Sundance and Toronto. "Filmmakers are really taking their time," he said. "They're thinking about what their options are."

Although buyers often are distracted by the looming shadow of the Cannes Film Festival, which begins May 16, "Tribeca is a good one to pay attention to," said David Laub, who handles acquisitions for Oscilloscope Laboratories, a New York-based distributor that releases features and documentaries, often with a subcultural element. "We don't always buy from it, but it's a real acquisitions festival."

Mr. Laub, who didn't disclose any potential acquisitions from Tribeca, singled out a few documentaries for attracting strong interest from his colleagues, including "Don't Stop Believin'" and two titles that focus on social issues: "Burn," an audience award-winner about Detroit fire fighters, and "Revisionaries," which won a special jury prize for its close-up on the ideological battles dividing the State Board of Education in Texas.

The festival's hiring of former Cannes programmer Frederic Boyer was of particular interest to Mr. Lorber, whose company often champions foreign-language directors. "It's a good laboratory for us to see how certain films we would like to pursue would work in a New York opening," he said. "The ability to dry run world cinema in front of a very diverse and demanding New York City audience is one of the unique values of the Tribeca festival, more so than Toronto and certainly more than Sundance."

For Mr. Gilmore, whose duties this year expanded into the programming realm, sales are important, but not a defining facet of the festival. "We strove for quality and said, 'Let's see what we can do to get films into the marketplace,'" he said. "Let's see how many discoveries come out of this."

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